Divergences: LOGAN part 1

Divergences: LOGAN part 1

I apologize in advance for my next few postings… I fear I’m going to get a little maudlin and nostalgic, as my (and my family’s) time in Chicago draws to a close. We’re now at 9 weeks and counting until…

 Burch Migration 2012 : FINGER LAKES BEWARE!

On July 31, 2012, I will leave my position at University of Chicago, precisely 7 years after I started. Thinking about where I was then as a designer, artist, husband, father, educator, human being (etcetera) is slightly overwhelming. For me it brings up the questions of both personal and academic evolution. And stemming from that is one of the slowest, and perhaps most tangential projects I’ve ever been (a VERY small) part of… that being the evolution of a building.

Even before I started here at UChicago, the planning was underway for an Arts Center that would house all of the academic fine art programs/departments on campus. Feasibility studies were already complete, initial conceptual plans from architecture firms were underway, and I came into a program who knew it was, and was going to continue to be in flux. It was clear that a tonal shift would happen as we moved from our scrappy and make-shift digs in a century-old student union building into a purpose-built, hi-tech, high-profile location. how could it not?

Over the course of my first couple of years here, there were an endless series of meetings, many of which I didn’t participate in (that honor fell to my boss, Heidi Coleman), but as things developed--- the  architecture firm of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien was hired, as were Shuler Shook (Theatre Planners) and Kirkegaard Associates (Sound/Acousticians), I started to be a part of the discussions about the building, how it might be used, and got the chance to respond to material choices and ideas. But even more fascinating to me were the inner-departmental conversations we had about wishes, desires and how the building would change the structure of the program, as well as how the programs needs needed to be infused into our conversations with the architects and planners.

No fewer than three times we were asked to “cut x percent” out of our overall footprint in order to cut costs, so we suggested certain rooms become smaller, or sometimes eliminated. A seemingly endless series of plan variations were sent our way for comments and recommendations. The initial groundbreaking ceremony arrived near my 5^th anniversary working here, and the plan was for it to be up and running by Spring 2012… a date that seemed both ridiculously far away, and tantalizingly close. I have to admit that I was most skeptical about the building being ready, but I gladly admit that I was also wrong. We indeed moved in when they said we would, even if workers were still traipsing about the building in hardhats, pouring concrete and creating all kinds of noise and dust.

The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts (LOGAN) located on the south end of campus, at the juncture of 60^th street, in between Drexel and Ingleside. It’s south of the MIDWAY PLAISANCE, a historic and somewhat peculiar boulevard that separates the south end of campus from the rest of campus. LOGAN is adjacent to the LAREDO TAFT HOUSE AND STUDIO, which is where DOVA (the Department Of Visual Art) has been housed for the better part of the past century.

Here’s a link to the official site for the building… http://arts.uchicago.edu/logan/

This building houses the following academic entities: DOVA, Music, Film and Media Studies, and TAPS (Theatre and Performance Studies). and consists of three major visual shapes (these are MY delineations, not the architects, mind you...) the BASE the TOWER and the COURTYARD. 

this is an early model of the proposed center

and here's a model of what was actually BUILT. 

the changes are fascinating, even on just a visual level.

You'll notice the BASE, (above in the model) its' distinguishing feature is that serrated top which is made of of series of sky-lights letting natural light into the 2nd floor of the building. there are pockets where this light is filtered further into the depths in really interesting ways. The first floor of the BASE contains a really nice gallery space for DOVA, as well as classrooms and studios for them. It also houses the main level of both theatre spaces for TAPS, and a performance hall which will be used primarily for the Music Dept. directly adjacent is the COURTYARD (which you can't see in the model pic above, but pix will follow, promise), which is an open area that is surrounded on three sides by the LOGAN Center, and directly adjacent to MIDWAY STUDIOS aka the Laredo Taft House. 

the COURTYARD as viewed thru the first floor hallway in the BASE, view looking SE

looking down into the COURTYARD from the 2nd floor BASE hallway, view looking NE

note the "bridge"

the "bridge" connects the top level of the performance hall to the tower, traversing the COURTYARD. note that the backsides of the sky-light serrated edges are covered in solar panels, and that the roof is planted in greenery.

 The second floor of the BASE houses departmental offices, art studio spaces, the second levels of TAPS' two theatres, including BEAUTIFUL new control booths. There is also a basement level to the BASE which holds storage, dressing rooms for the theatres and performance hall, the costume shop and a digital media lab and classroom. 

view from the SW corner of the building

view of the tower from NE of the building

the porch you see on the right side is part of MIDWAY STUDIOS

view of the BASE room, and all those skylights from the 7th

floor of the tower

in, what seems to ME  to be an odd, but unique choice, many of the

interior walls are covered in a felted material, decorated in a variety of

patterns and shapes

the main lobby. the frosted glass you see throughout reaches up past the roofs

in order to act as ersatz light wells that continue vertically through the building to bring 

some natural light into even the basement... cool, eh?

The TOWER consists of 11 floors, the first floor of which will be a cafe, eventually, the remaining ten floors will house classrooms, music rehearsal rooms and studios, a film screening room, two TAPS classroom/studios, and performance space on the covered rooftop deck.

one of the TAPS classrooms in the TOWER

second view of same classroom

view out the window in said classroom

We’ve now been in the building for almost 10 weeks, and there are still workers about, though much fewer, and there are elements that won’t be complete for weeks to come. The building “soft” opened on April 21^st, 2012, and there is a gala celebration planned for this coming October, when the remaining parts of the building are complete (notably a cafe on the first floor and the film screening room/theater in the tower).

The catchphrases that I kept hearing throughout the process were…

“supporting inter-disciplinary cooperation and collaboration”

“the building should be a beacon, beaconing the northside of campus to stretch out and come to us.”  and “a beacon to the community, asking them to join us in a community conversation about togetherness”

“a beehive of creativity, that lit up even into the night, showing artist at work”.

and in many ways, the tower feels a bit like a beacon…and it IS a beehive of activity. I have to admit that. The one place where it seems a little lacking yet is the “inter-disciplinary cooperation/collaboration”, and in all fairness, those kind of connections take time. Just because we are all now sharing a building doesn’t mean that we’re all willing to ‘play along’. Those kind of relationships take time, and people willing to span the divide of programming and insularity that academic departments are famous for. I’m hopeful to that end. I really am.

But sadly, that bridging of mistrusts and inner-departmental shift will be happening without me. July 31 looms.

Up next: Our theatre spaces here at LOGAN